


Shattered

by Big_ball_of_anxiety_and_cake



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I Tried, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Missy is mentioned, The Master Has Issues, The Master is the Timeless Child, They talk, bit really it was all about the, but I fixed nothing else, fluffy blankets, the amount of typos I had to fix before posting, this comes straight from my sleep-deprived brain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:15:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27147905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Big_ball_of_anxiety_and_cake/pseuds/Big_ball_of_anxiety_and_cake
Summary: Just another story about the ending of the Timeless Children. They actually talk and it ends with blankets and a very confused Yaz.
Relationships: The Doctor & The Master (Doctor Who), Thirteenth Doctor & The Master (Dhawan)
Kudos: 17





	Shattered

“I’ve won Doctor”, said the Master and his eyes gleamed with beyond manical delight. “You may have made me but I have destroyed you!”

The Doctor gripped the death particle tighter.

She had to do this. He was going to destroy the universe! Her best friend, who had destroyed their home. Who had run across these fields with her so long ago. He was making her do this, he had orchestrated all of this. But then why did he look so sad?

This close to him, she could see the cracks in his mask of unhinged showmannship. He was scared. He didn’t want this, so why did he claim to? He had never wanted to die before, not permanently. Just as he had never wanted to permanently kill her before. What had changed now?

Her grip on the death particle loosened slightly and the Master growled.

“C’mon, that thing could kill anything. Even me. Even you. So do it, Doctor! Push the button!”, he was screaming now. The picture of homicidal rage but she could see the tears in his eyes. The way his skin was stretched to tight, the desperation he tried so hard not to show.

She should push this button, she really should. She should kill the Master and sacrifice herself and the rest of this planet to save the universe. But she couldn’t. Something was wrong.

“Even me”, he had said. Now wasn’t that a thought.

"Why did you never die before?”, she asked. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you didn’t but you’ve run out of regenerations so many times and always found a way out. That’s interesting isn’t it.”

From his expression on his face, she knew that she was onto something there. He tried to make excuses, tried to drag her attention back to him, he screamed and raged but she wasn’t listening anymore. How had the Master survived all those times? Sure, they had always been an excuse but in retrospect most of them seemed feeble at best. Connect this with the rather small amount of memories directly connected to her as the Timeless Child, the way it hadn’t seem to fit right and the weird way Ruth had acted, like she wasn’t really human, and you got...

“You’re the Timeless Child”, she said surprising both him and herself. But it made sense, didn’t it? Why the Time Lords had always been so weary of the Master, afraid that he would remember. Why he had never died before. Why the memories in the matrix didn’t seem like hers. Ruth had probably just been an android too. Why else would she call herself Doctor and own a police box TARDIS? It all suddenly began to make sense. Now she only needed confirmation.

His silence was enough of an answer.

“Then why do this? Why tell me it was me? It makes no sense!”

The Master only scoffed. “Oh, please! I needed you angry! And you wouldn’t have been if I just told you they hurt me. You’ve never cared about me.”

“Of course I care about you! Of course I care that they hurt you! You’re my best friend!”

It broke her heart to see that the Master seemed genuinely surprised.

“You care?”, he asked quietly like saying it too loudly might destroy this moment and force him back into reality. Like this wasn’t real.

She smiled softly. “Yes, I do.”

And then she hugged him, the death particle dropping to the ground and immediately forgotten. They hadn’t hugged in a while. She had hugged Missy once, hadn’t she? How long ago was that and more importantly, how long had it been for him?

The Master practically melted into her touch. His whole body went limp except for his hands that clung onto her coat for dear life. Only when his tears started to soak through her shirt, did she notice that he was crying. All that he had tried so hard to hide started spilling out of him.

“Please, Doctor, help me! It hurts so much! It’s not just the drums, it’s the voices. All these voices that I used to be and they won’t stop screaming. Please, I just want it to stop! I wanted to be special but I didn’t want this! I didn’t want this pain!”

Tears were streaming down his face and he turned away. All the manic energy seemed to leave his body and he suddenly seemed so small.

“I didn’t want to be alone”, he whispered.

“Then why did you leave? As Missy? I wanted you by my side and you left!”

The Master looked back up and a bit of that manic energy returned to his eyes.

“But I didn’t! I came back! I killed my past self and came back but you were gone! You abandoned me!"

She didn’t know what to say to that. Wasn’t this so like them? If she was honest with herself, both had been messed up from the beginning. The Time Lords weren’t exactly known for their kind treatment of children and even after the two of them left their home planet behind, they had never quite managed to escape that. She chuckled softly.

“Look at us both. Isn’t this so like us? All this knowledge and we still don’t notice the important things until someone yells them into our face.”

She let go of the Master and stood up. He didn’t try to stop her but it wasn’t like she planned to leave. 

She offered him her hand and after a moment of hesitation, he took it and let her help him up. This time her smile was one of genuine delight.

“Let’s take you home.”

\-----------------------

When her companions returned to the TARDIS later that evening, they were greeted with the sight of the Master, all bundled up in a fuzzy blanket, sleeping in the control room.

“Ehmm...Doctor?”, asked Yaz. “Is he supposed to be here?”

The Doctor, being her usual hyperactive self, was spinning around the console room flipping leavers and only spared a quick glance to the being who had tried to kill her just a few hours ago.

“Oh, yeah. I brought him in here after what happened on Gallifrey. Fell asleep almost right away, so I gave him a blanket and everything. Do you think I should get him another one? It’s pretty chilly in here.”

“Well, yeah but...why exactly is he here?”

“Oh, yeah. He’s with us now. Hang on a minute, I’m getting more blankets.”

And with that she was gone, leaving her friends alone with only a currently sleeping homocidal maniac for company.

“Has she gone insane?!”, asked Graham in disbelief. “That guy tried to kill us!”

Yaz shushed him. “Do you want him to wake up while she isn’t there?”

Luckily the Doctor wasn’t gone for long. She came back only moments later carrying the largest stack of blankets and pillows they had ever seen which were all lovingly draped and arranged around the Master without waking him up. She proudly surveyed her work and then turned back to the others.

“I reckon that should do it. Or do you think it’s too much? Maybe he’ll be too warm now? Well, he always liked it a bit warmer but maybe I should...”

“Doctor”, Yaz interrupted her rambling. “You mind telling us what the hell is going on?”

“Yeah, what’s he doing here?”

The Doctor looked between the Master and her other friends for a while. She seemed confused but then it clicked.

“Oh, right! Well, he’s my best friend and he had a bit of a breakdown lately but it’s fine. We can fix this.”

Ryan didn’t seem to agree with that. “Doctor, he’s killed people.”

“Well, so have I.”

And wasn’t that something. It was one of all those things, too many things, she had kept from them. Because she liked them. Because she wanted them to like her back. Because she didn’t want to see the fear in their eyes.

There was fear now. Shock as well and a fair amount of disbelief. They had seen her kill before, of course, but they all knew that was not what she was talking about. She ran a hand through her hair nervously and took a deep breath.

“There was a war between my people and the daleks. I fought in it. We both did. And we both did horrible things to survive. He wasn’t okay before either but between that and all the other things that have been happening lately...It broke him. He’s shattered.”

When she looked back up, there were tears in her eyes.

“Please, help me fix this.”

**Author's Note:**

> I was just reading Doctor Who fanfiction in my bed and my blanket was so warm and comfortable that I wanted the Master to have one too.  
> The rest just sort of happened. 
> 
> I don't even know.


End file.
